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Turkey: US Embassy Move to Jerusalem 'Extremely Worrying'

Published February 24th, 2018 - 04:00 GMT

Turkey's President and leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech during the AKP's extended meeting of provincial heads at the party's headquarters in Ankara on Feb. 23, 2018.
(ADEM ALTAN / AFP)

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that the recent U.S. statement saying it would move its embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was “extremely worrying”.

“Turkey will continue exerting efforts along with the overwhelming majority of the international community to protect the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights in response to the U.S.’s [...] decision, which is extremely worrying,” the ministry said in a statement.

The State Department announced on Friday that the U.S. would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 14 -- the day the state of Israel was established and officially recognized by Washington in 1948.

The statement showed that the U.S. was insistant on "destroying peace by violating international law", U.N. Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem and UN parameters, the ministry noted.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry added that the U.S. was proving with this latest statement that it either did not hear, or did not wish to listen to, the international community, the position of which was reflected in last December's Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Istanbul declaration and the subsequent U.N. General Assembly resolution.

The relocation plan was the United States’ first priority after President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December last year, which drew a storm of condemnation and protests across the Arab and Muslim world.